evil twin nyc this deli needs a bigger cream-cheese selection double dry hopped double india pale ale - 8% abv. a lot of breweries have made a lot of good beer with these two hops, but this is really sweet and so far from what I expect from them that I wonder if there was a packaging issue.

finback unoccupied space barrel aged imperial stout with chocolate and vanilla brewed in collaboration with kane - 12% abv. this is a solid but unexceptional barrel aged stout, which is a little bit less than what you’d expect from finback. it’s pretty barrel forward, with raisin, fig, and tobacco at first, and then some rich chocolate fudge and vanilla, with a fair amount of booze the whole way. it tastes like decent bourbon, which isn’t true that often, it’s reasonably nuanced, doesn’t taste like the florida stouts, and so on.

omnipollo x tupiniquim poli mango brazillian style imperial india pale ale brewed with polenta - brewed at great south bay brewing in bay shore new york, 9.5% abv. this is one of those omnipollo beers that’s weird in an interesting way. it’s a bright yellow that’s not hazy, so it doesn’t look like a new (hazy) or old (amber) ipa with this abv. this is pretty sweet, but it has the kind of delicate tropical stuff you’d get in a ne ipa, and it’s got some of the tropical fruit/blueberry that you expect from mosiac, along with a pretty prominent polenta (that works like malt) backbone that has an odd graininess to it. this isn’t that well executed, which is a common problem with the american made omnipollo stuff, and it’s too better they couldn’t get someone to combine these clever grain notes with a more vibrant set of hop notes blah blah blah.

evil twin brewing new york city etnyc proudly presents the real mexican cake imperial stout brewed with cacao nibs, cinnamon, habanero peppers, and vanilla beans - brewed without westbrook, 12.9% abv. mexican cake is one of the older beers that are responsible for the idea of the pastry stout. it uses the same list of adjuncts used here, with the key advance over earlier flavored beers being the use of chili peppers to help hide the apparent alcohol, which was a mere 10.5% in the original beer, which was westbrook’s anniversary beer back when they were making a lot of good beer for evil twin, and a lot more subtle than prairie’s bomb, which uses a similar set of adjuncts to similar effect. anyways... this is fairly similar to the j wakefield collaboration I had last week - there’s the same thick mouthfeel, rich combination of nuts and chocolate, etc etc, only the apparent alcohol is hidden by the burn of what really tastes like habaneros, which makes this very spicy for a beer. it’s been a few years since I’ve had the original version, but I remember it being well executed if not quite this intense, but I don’t think this is an improvement in any meaningful sense.

bissel brothers reciprocal india pale ale - 7.3% abv. portland maine’s bissel brothers is one of the more established purveyors of ne ipas, and it’s taken them a little more than five years to start sending beer to nyc. the first batch showed up during nyc beer week, when my fridge was stuffed with other half anniversary releases, so these very fresh cans are part of their second shipment down here. they were about as expensive as cans of ne ipas get at retail, and only a little bit cheaper than getting someone to drive them down here from maine would be. anyways this is their all austrailian hops ipa, with ella, summit, and vic secret but not galaxy. this definitely tastes strongly of vic secret to me, and it’s about as bitter as a ne ipa can be, but there’s some weird bitter guava grapefruit here and it’s a lot better than the other cans I’ve had.

other half all medusa everything imperial india pale ale - 8.5% abv. medusa is a wild hop that was found growing wild in new mexico and is one of the many trendy hops that I first had in a beer from sierra nevada. I don’t think this is going to have the same impact as citra, but this is weird in a nice way and very distinctive. this is also a new beer for other half, so it’s one of the few I’ve had recently that’s not double dry hopped. it’s got some of the usual tropical flavors (guava, dragon fruit) and a little peach, orange marmalade, and lime, but there’s a weird flavor underneath everything that I can’t really put my finger on. peach tea? raw green peppers? the rest of this is up to other half’s current standards for dipas - there’s no booze, there’s a little sweetness but no direct malt presence, etc etc. I like this a lot and I’m sorry I didn’t pick up the lactose version of this that preceded it.

aslin johann the mango thief double india pale ale with mango and vanilla - 9.4% abv. aslin is a herndon, va brewery that’s got a reputation for over the top beer, especially stouts. this is has an enormous set of mango notes that are surprisingly bitter in a way that doesn’t really taste like hops. I guess it says something that bitterness is seen as a flaw in a huge double ipa, but I think acrid is a fair descriptor here.

pipeworks brewing company unofficial beer sponsor india pale ale with citra, styrian wolf, and cryo cascade hops - 6.5% abv. this is a very credible ne ipa from a brewery I don’t really pay that much attention to anymore, which is more about the age of their beer when I see it than any judgement I’ve made about the quality of their beer, which is too bad because they usually come up with interesting concepts. this has a pretty interesting set of hops, it’s got citra, which we all know from sierra’s torpedo and about a thousand other beers, along with a newish hop from slovenia and the cryo version of a true old school american hop, which was all know from sierra nevada pale ale and a ... this is very nice for a single ipa, there’s a weird mixture of strawberry and lime along with some almost soft resinous notes and some really nice melon notes. I’m glad I picked this up, it drinks like it’s bigger than the abv without giving up any delicacy and the weird hop bill definitely tastes weird etc etc.

grimm destination neon double india pale ale - 8% abv. I really don’t know what to make of my increasingly negative impression of the hoppy beer coming out of grimm’s brewery in brooklyn, the stuff they were making in virginia was definitely the best packaged beer I’ve had easy access to, it was delicate and nuanced in a way that nothing else blah blah. the beer I’ve had since they opened their own brewery has been shockingly bad, the early stuff was a little bit too sweet but the newer stuff doesn’t make up for it with the same kind of nuance and delicacy. this is a decent modern dipa, it’s got a simple set of peach and bitter citrus that come from citra cryo, azzaca, simcoe, and motueka, which seems like it should be more interesting, and their good beers were never this bitter. maybe there’s something about their location that makes their beer more like interboro’s etc etc etc.

aslin beer company’s cidiots imperial stout brewed with bananas, macadamia nuts, cocoa nibs, coconut & vanilla - 15% abv. this is another one from the dc area brewery that makes ne ipas and imperial stouts. the online beer community seems to respect the stouts more than the hoppy beer, but I probably would have tried any beer that has the same set of adjuncts as the other half 5th anniversary stout that I liked so much, which was also really popular on the secondary market. (that one included wild thai bananas, as well as toasted coconut that was listed separately from regular coconut blah blah.) I don’t know if they quite got away with this, it doesn’t really taste like banana and the rest of it tastes just like any of the other half stouts from the last year or so, only it’s a little less nutforward and shows a little bit more subtlety than the other half version. the booze is equally well hid, which is an achievement I guess. recommended to anyone looking to say they’ve had an aslin stout.

the veil dirt nap^3 triple dry hopped india pale ale - 8.8% abv. the veil is a richmond, va brewery that’s a part of the other half collaboration/festival circuit. they don’t really send beer to ny that often, but I have had it on tap in DC and a few times here. the head brewer has a truly impeccable resume (hill farmstead, cantillion) but the recent other half tap over and can sale, which was the source of these cans and the next few beers I’ll post about, didn’t really give me a better sense of what he’s doing. I had a stout, which was a better adjunct stout than most local breweries can make, two dipas, which were solid but not really distinctive, some fruited sours which were fine, and a fruit beer with brett that was nice well done but also lacked character. these cans aren’t going to help me either, this is a perfectly well done ne dipa that’s toward the bitter side. it’s got galaxy, citra, nelson, and mosiac, which is a typical mix of northern and southern hemisphere hops, and it tastes like any number of similar beers I’ve had. there’s some mango, peach, passion fruit, etc, a thick version of the tropical fruit profile we all love that’s hard to make out under the bitterness. whether this is better than any number of local ipas comes down to preference, this is bitter while the other half stuff is sweet, blah blah blah. recommended to people who need to say they’ve had dipas from the veil.

the veil master shredder wheat india pale ale - 5.5% abv. this is their house mosaic ipa, and apparently they make enough of it to warrant silk screened cans. it’s a hazy orange that’s a little bit too dark for a low abv ne ipa, and while it’s not as malty as it looks the familiar citrus and berry you get with mosaic is pretty muddled and I don’t like the grain notes either. I’m surprised by how bad I think this is.

the veil x omnipollo ra triple india pale ale with oat milk - 11% abv. oat milk doesn’t taste like milk sugar, which is good, and it does have a similar effect on the body of a beer, at least in this case. the rest of the beer, which was made with galaxy, simcoe, and nelson, and it’s got a bitter version of what you’d expect from those hops that’s got a nice mixture of guava, peach, and unripe mango, with a little bit of lychee and citrus underneath. the alcohol is pretty well hidden, and it’s bitter enough that it doesn’t come off as juicy as an OH triple, which would be a lot hotter. recommended.

the veil what haunts me sour double india pale ale with blackberries, blood orange, and milk sugar - 9% abv. this is one of those fruited sour dipas that only hudson valley seems to be able to do really well, and while this isn’t that good it’s more enjoyable than I thought it would be. the tart notes are very mild and have a little more depth than most lacto beers, and the fruit notes are rich, and the vanilla gives this a nice finish, the blackberries work with the yeast, etc etc. this doesn’t taste like hops or anything but it’s a nice shade of purple and I’m sure my kids would like it.